


Overwritten

by ThirtySixSaveFiles



Category: Borderlands, Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Discussion of character death, M/M, past relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-24
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-18 01:26:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7293835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThirtySixSaveFiles/pseuds/ThirtySixSaveFiles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AI Jack discovers there are some holes in his memory.</p><p>(Takes place at some indeterminate time during Road Trip Pandora in Ep 3.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Overwritten

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you as always to [Jillus](http://jillus.tumblr.com) whom I am tricking into being my beta reader. :3 Thank you my friend.

“Hey. Hey Rhys, wake up.”

Rhys tugs the blanket closer and curls tighter into himself. Can’t Jack let him be? He’d been having a terrible dream about being on Pandora, which strangely doesn’t seem to be fading, but if Jack would just leave him _alone_ , maybe he could get back to sleep.

“ _w_ Ak _e U_ P!”

The electronic distortion in Jack’s voice jerks Rhys into the here and now and he sits bolt upright. Jack - the _AI_ version of Jack, that’s right, Jack is dead and Rhys _is_ on Pandora and everything has gone to hell - is floating cross-legged in front of him. In the dark he looks like he’s glowing, and Rhys wonders if it’s a bad sign that he can see in the illusory light Jack gives off.

He’s far enough away from the others that he can probably get away with talking to Jack without waking anybody up. Probably. 

“Here’s the thing,” Jack says, as if he hasn’t yanked Rhys out of a sound sleep. “I knew you looked familiar, kiddo, I knew it. I just didn’t know from _where_ .” Jack shakes his head. “It’s been driving me crazy, just like Wallethead, you know? But I figured, you and I are stuck together for a while, I had time to figure it out.”

Rhys rubs his eyes and tries to blink the cobwebs away. He has a feeling he’s going to want to be awake for this conversation.

“And then,” Jack continues, “when you let me into your subsystems - thanks for that, by the way - I took advantage of that wetware you’ve got up in there and ran a few diagnostics. Just checking myself out, you understand - and who wouldn’t, right?” He winks but Rhys is too busy going cold at the implications to respond.

“And what do you think I found when I did that?” Jack presses his hands together and points them at Rhys. “Go on, I want to hear your guess.”

“I - I don’t know?” Rhys has some ideas but he’s not going to give them voice, not yet.

“Hmmph. Disappointing, but whatever.” Jack waves his hands and moves on. “I found _blank spaces,_ Rhys, gaps where data should be but isn’t. I can tell, because whoever did it didn’t patch the holes they left behind, just stole chunks of my memory. Now who do you think would do that?” Jack plants his elbows on his knees and leans forward. His face is pleasant, but Rhys can see the lines of tension running through him

Rhys has some ideas here too, but he gets the feeling that Jack isn't done with his story. Best to wait and see what Jack concludes before offering anything up.

“No suggestions? All right then.” Jack leans back again. “The way I see it, there are two possibilities. The first is Nakayama, but that seems unlikely. The guy was obsessed with me; he wouldn’t deliberately damage a successful - a success.”

“The second possibility, and this seems much more likely -” Rhys doesn’t like where he thinks this is going “- is myself.”

Rhys definitely doesn’t like where this is going.

“Any contributions from the class yet?” Rhys presses his lips together but doesn’t say anything. “Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll get there eventually. So I ran some of your data-recovery processes on the blank spots - nice failsafes you’ve got up there, incidentally, couldn’t have done it better myself - and what do you think I found?”

Jack grins at him when Rhys doesn’t answer, but it’s devoid of any friendliness. “I found your face, buddy. It’s partially corrupted and your hair is stupid, but it’s definitely you.”

“Explain that to me, Rhysie. Tell me why I would have gone and erased any record of you from myself. Tell me _w_ h _o Yo_ u _aR_ E _To_ M _E._ ”

Rhys winces at the crackling that enters Jack’s voice when he loses control. Jack seems to hear it too, because he grimaces and shakes his head. Rhys wonders, not for the first time, how much of Jack’s form is programmed and how much of it is because this is how he expects Jack to look.

“Well?” Jack growls, and Rhys supposes Jack deserves this much. He had hoped to avoid it, but...well.

“Okay,” Rhys says. “Okay.” He draws his knees up and wraps his arms around them, gathering his thoughts. Jack waits in uncharacteristic silence, although he does drum his fingers soundlessly against his knee.

“We were - we were, uh, _together_ ,” Rhys says quietly, careful that his voice doesn’t carry. “ _Before_. Before you died.”

Jack snorts, as if he’s waiting for the punchline, but his face turns surprised when Rhys doesn’t offer one. “ _Together_ , you mean like -” he makes an obscene hand gesture, and Rhys makes a face but he nods.

“Huh.” Jack props his cheek on his hand and stares at Rhys. “I mean, you’re pretty and all, but you’re also -” he gestures up and down at Rhys “ - _you._ What did I see in you?”

That stings, even coming out of a dead man’s mouth. “I don’t know,” Rhys snaps. “Enough that you apparently felt the need to _purge me from your record_ after -” Rhys shuts his mouth but it’s too late, Jack is leaning forward and his eyes are on fire.

“After what, Rhysie?” His voice is deadly sweet, just the way Rhys remembers it. Jack flexes his right hand and Rhys feels his fingers move in time. He puts his left hand over his right wrist, but he knows that’s only going to slow Jack down if he decides to take control.

“I told you not to go,” he says, and it feels like a floodgate opening. “I asked you, I _begged_ you not to come down here, but you wouldn’t listen. You were Handsome _fucking_ Jack, right? Heros don’t lose, not when it counts, that’s what you told me.” Rhys swallows against the tightness in his throat. He hasn’t told anyone this next part, not even Vaughn.

“We both said things we didn't mean,” he continues quietly. “At least, that's what I tell myself. I said - I said that if you left I wouldn't be there when you came back. _If_ you came back. I didn’t mean it,” Rhys repeats. “I just didn't want you to _go._ ”

“I'm guessing that's when you did it. I didn't even know about -” Rhys waves vaguely at Jack, who is watching him intently. “About this. About this you.”

Jack hums softly to himself, and if Rhys closed his eyes it would almost sound like they were back on Helios, Jack working on the endless minutiae of running Hyperion even in bed while Rhys dozed next to him. He doesn't, though - he keeps his eyes fixed on Jack because this may be the closest he ever comes to absolution for that last screaming fight.

“And what then?” Jack asks. “What happened next?”

“And then you didn't come back,” Rhys sighs. “And that was the end of it.”

It wasn't quite the end, of course - but Rhys doesn't feel like going into the waiting, the way the surety that Jack would return triumphant had turned into a cold, creeping dread. The way he wished he would just hear something, one way or the other - or the way that when he finally did, when the news first trickled back, he had to break for the nearest bathroom to throw up. He doesn't want to talk about the cursing, the crying, the _mourning_ that Rhys had done for this impossible man that Rhys had loved.

This Jack doesn't get to know that. The Jack that Rhys knew is dead. This one is - something else.

“So...where do we go from here?” Rhys ventures after a long, uncomfortable silence.

Jack laughs, and the distortion in it raises the hairs on the back of Rhys’ neck.

“Well, I guess that’s up to you. _Sweetheart_.”

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me at [ThirtySixSaveFiles](http://thirtysixsavefiles.tumblr.com) on Tumblr!


End file.
